The Secret Life of a Male Dancer
by JPalmerGirl
Summary: Jimmy Palmer has many secrets, this is about the secret life of Jimmy Palmer, Irish step-dancer and Male Ballerina. No one knows who Jimmy Palmer really is, until a series of events bring it to light. An ankle sprain, a murder, an Irish girl and a serial killer. What more could you want?


Jimmy Palmer hissed in pain as he pressed ice to his severely sprained ankle. It was stupid to get a sprain now, but he'd still done it anyway. Besides, he hadn't had a sprain in four years and it was a job hazard. Male Ballerinas and male step-dancers commonly ended up with ankle sprains but most of them, like Jimmy, had been practicing for so long that ankle sprains were few and far in between. But that was a double sided coin, that meant that when they did get sprains they were usually bad sprains.

Jimmy had been in Irish step-dance since he was four years old and he'd loved every minute of it. He was gifted in dance, always had been. It was a long running joke in the WB company of how Jimmy could be so clumsy and awkward in everyday life, yet so graceful and lithe on the stage.

He'd joined the Washington Ballet as a five year old and was so gifted, by the time that he was fifteen he was performing solos by himself with the full company and by the time he was eighteen, he was a full and valued member of the company. He was also the only Irish step-dancer in the WB Company, which gave him special status. But Jimmy wasn't stupid, he knew that his dancing career wouldn't last forever. Probably to his mid-thirties at most, that's why Jimmy juggled his dancing career in one hand and medical school in the other, then when he was offered an assistant position to a medical examiner, he accepted almost instantly.

Jimmy gave a low groan as he removed the ice from his swollen ankle and slowly began to wrap it in an ACE bandage before taking a stir-up brace and strapping it to the swollen and purpling ankle. He couldn't stay home to rest like the rest of the company, he had to go to work at NCIS. Which undoubtably meant hauling himself to a crime scene on crutches...great. He smiled inwardly when he thought about how his Company friends had reacted when they heard he was working. Nate, the oldest had merely glared, while Dom and Terry both had instant concern on their twin faces. '_Don't go to work, J.P! You'll re-injure yourself with your crutches!' 'We need you for Nutcracker, don't be an idiot J.P_!'. Both twins had hurriedly told him, but Jimmy waved them off.

How was he supposed to pay for Ballet and Step-dance if he didn't work? He needed to dance, just like he needed to breathe. The Company was his life and it was also extremely expensive. His friends all had rich parents and such, while Jimmy had to pay for his dance all on his own. His father had walked out on them when Jimmy was eight and his mother had died while he was nineteen. Now at twenty two, he was doing all he could to pay for Ballet, Step-dance and College, even if it meant walking everywhere and skipping a few meals now and then. If he got to dance, then it was worth it. It was worth the world.

Jimmy slowly heaved himself to his feet, thanking God for the fact that his doctor said that his ankle would heal fully if he managed to stay off of it and keep it braced for 6 weeks. If it meant that his career was still alive after, than he would do whatever the doctor ordered of him. He quickly slid his crutches under his armpits and and shuffled forwards awkwardly, almost crying out as he clipped his ankle on the kitchen table, before hurried leaving the house. He would need to leave early if he wanted to get to work on time, it wasn't like he could drive like this anyway and the bus was always early.

-TimeSkip-

Jimmy hobbled awkwardly down the sidewalk towards where the crime scene apparently was. His ankle was now throbbing in dull and constant pain, that and the pounding headache he had, had equaled a very irritated Jimmy Palmer. He had got a call before he arrived at work, that they needed to meet at a crime scene. Jimmy was about to explain his predicament, but McGee had already hung up. So Jimmy heaved himself there on his crutches. Cursing at the world, the whole time.

"I'm here guys!"

Jimmy yelled as he cursed inwardly when he saw that the Team was in a deep embankment. Jimmy slowly grit his teeth and shifted on one of his crutches to his other arm and made tedious and dangerous work as he shuffled into the overgrown ditch that they were in. Tony obviously saw his predicament first and subconsciously made sure that everyone knew about by yelling.

"Ooo...Autopsy Gremlin, what happened to you? Did L.A.R.P get violent?"

Tony yelled as he sprinted up the slope to help a struggling Jimmy, who at this point was the color of a over-ripe strawberry. McGee and Ziva soon followed the Senior Agent, while Ducky looked at his young assistant with concern and Gibbs conveyed his concern with a glare. Jimmy just brushed off the help he was offered by McGee, Ziva and Tony, and was so relieved that he could've cried when he finally reached the bottom of the embankment. Jimmy tried to avoid the questioning looks and instead, studied the crime scene that surrounded him.

There was a long yellow caution tape borderline, behind the line it seemed to be full of people, they were all congregated together. Most likely people from the surrounding buildings and houses. But there was one girl who was fighting against one of the policemen who was instantly holding her behind the line. From what Jimmy could see, she had light brown freckles going down both skinny, pale arms and a heavy head full of wild curly red locks. Jimmy couldn't see her face but he could hear the girl's screams as she extended her hands out to the body whom Dr. Mallard was examining.

Jimmy tried to do his best and ignore the desperate girl as he hobbled over to where Dr. Mallard was examining the body of another young female. Jimmy couldn't help but study her face and he couldn't seem to place the nagging feeling that he knew the dead girl with her fiery red curls in two braids and the dust of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Finally, he brushed the thought away and slowly lowered himself to the grass. When he saw Ducky's questioning stare, Jimmy gave an apologetic smile.

"Severe sprain, nothing serious, just being my clumsy self is all."

Jimmy laughed sheepishly and Ducky rolled his eyes up to the heavens as they both got to work on the body. At least what they could do while on scene. Then suddenly, over the din of noise, he and the rest of the Team heard a clearly defined shout. It came from the struggling red head at the line.

"Jimmy? Jimmy Palmer! LET ME THROUGH! I KNOW HIM! JIMMY TELL THEM TO LET ME THROUGH! IT'S MEREDITH! JIMMY, PLEASE! IS NAT OKAY?

The girl...Meredith, shrieked towards him and Jimmy whipped his head around to focus on the heart-achingly familiar face of his childhood friend. He just gaped at the familiar emerald colored eyes.

_-Flashback-_

_A six year old Jimmy Palmer grinned at his best friend, Meredith McConnell. She was an Irish immigrant just like him and she didn't make fun of his accent, because he had one as well. He really loved Mery's hair, it was as red as fire and was the same color as his Mam's. She always wore it in a pair of long pigtails though. Both six year olds were in the Irish step-class together, they were always at the front because they had been there the longest and knew all the work. That was how both children had met. They were instant best friends. _

_"Wait up, Mery!"_

_Jimmy called as he struggled to climb after her, the tree was really big after all and he wasn't as good at climbing as Meredith. They both liked to climb the big oak tree outside of their Irish dance studio, even though their teacher Ms. Catherine, told them not too. Jimmy peered upwards just as Meredith stuck her head out of the surrounding branches to look down at her best friend. Her long curls drifting down her shoulders and into her face as she hung partly upside down. _

_"Hurry up, Jimmy! Me Mammy could climb faster than ye!"_

_She bellowed, her heavy Irish accent lilting through as she yelled. Meredith had been the first ever person to call him Jimmy, everyone else had just called him James. Jimmy just stuck his tongue out at the slightly younger girl and proceeded to hurry up his climbing speed to match his best friend's. Taking two, even three branches at a time to catch up with his best friend who just laughed at him gleefully. _

_"JIMMY!"_

_He heard Meredith screech and that was the only warning he got, before he saw her hands slip from the branch she was clinging onto and plummet downwards. It was if time passed in slow motion after that and he caught a full view of the child falling towards him. _

_"MERY! GRAB ON!"_

_He screamed as Meredith fell past him, without grabbing his outstretched hand. He grunted as he threw out an arm and managed to snag the end of her green uniform collar. When all her weight pulled against Jimmy's skinny child sized arm. The boy let out a sob of agony as white hot pain flared across his shoulder and vibrated down his arm, he just kept hold onto his best friend for dear life. One arm wrapped around the trunk of the tree for support, his fingers raw and bloody from digging into the rough and uneven bark of the tree. Meredith began to cry for help, not able to stop the hot tears that surged down her cheeks._

_"Mery! I'm going to swing you so you can grab the tree okay?"_

_Jimmy whispered hoarsely, unable to look down or at his best friend. The little girl below him squinted blearily at him and managed to give a weak 'yes' and nod. Jimmy proceeded to swing his already throbbing and abused arm right and left, waiting for Meredith to catch ahold of something and when she finally managed to wrap her arms around a tree branch and take her weight off of Jimmy, he was ready to cry from the sheer amount of pure pain in his arm. Jimmy felt his head swim and it was all he could do to hang onto his tree. _

_Finally he sighed in relief as he felt a pair of strong and warm arms wrap around his middle and gently climb down with him. He watched blearily as her Mam grabbed Mery and he looked up at his savior to see Natalie, Meredith's older sister. The girl was like an older Mery except without quite as many freckles and watery blue eyes instead of Meredith's emerald orbs. _

_-End Flashback-_

Meredith had stayed with Step-dancing when she moved back to Ireland, when they were ten. While Natalie stayed in America to go to college. He had no idea that his Mery had returned to America or what college Natalie was going to. He found himself yelling at the policemen as loud as he could, he had no idea why, but he did.

"Mery? LET HER IN NOW!"

Jimmy screeched as he staggered to his feet and hobbled towards her. The curly red haired blur launched towards him at full speed and he found his crutches falling to the floor as he was lifted off his feet in a tight hug as Mery buried her face in Jimmy's hair. He could clearly feel the undeniable wetness there. That was when it hit him, Natalie was dead and Mery was in his arms, she was back. Jimmy gave a shuttering sigh and leaned into the desperate hug as the Team looked on in concern and confusion.


End file.
